Just an Echo
by Driftinglullaby
Summary: Ichigo's never felt more useless; he's lost his powers and the world moves on without him. When a stranger appears at his window and offers to get Ichigo's powers back he doesn't hesitate to agree. But who is this man, and why does Ichigo feel like he's looking in the mirror when he sees this man?


**This disregards the Fullbring arc entirely, as well as some other minor details. I'm a lazy bastard, so time skips ahoy. Mild spoils if you aren't up to date with Bleach. Will only by a 2-shot.**

He dreams about it every night. It's like he can't escape it; eyes open or closed he is constantly reminded of how weak he is now. Karin, who thinks he doesn't know about how her powers are growing every day, who thinks that he hasn't seen her sneaking off to Urahara's place to train. Chad, Inoue, Uryuu who all train and leave class to fight hollows. Of course he sees them all; and he trying not to, really, he is. He wants to move on. It's over, he defeated Aizen and he really just needs to move on at this point.

But it's hard to forget about it when it's all around you.

Sometimes he thinks about the Shinigami, when he isn't being careful and lets his memories and thoughts just go with the wind. He thinks about how Rukia is doing, and whether or not Byakuya is any less of an uptight older brother. Sometimes he'll think about the Visored and how they must be adjusting to life once again in the world of the Shinigami. Somehow he thinks it should be pretty easy; it's a special club after all, and once you're in it, do you ever really leave it?

Even now, Ichigo wonders if he's really left it behind. He's trying, he doesn't think he'll ever really accomplish it.

When he goes to sleep at night it tends to take a while to actually drift off. He'll come home, usually eat dinner quietly—as quietly as he can with everyone trying to coax him into being loud—and head off to bed. It's not that he's depressed, or that he's unaware of the concerned glances everyone shoots him, it's just that what's there left to say? He useless now. What else is he good for? When there's nothing left to give, what are you left with?

There's too much time to think.

Tonight is especially bad. His father is out, and Karin is probably at Kisuke's shop training late into the night, and Yuzu is sleeping at a friend's house. "A big party, big brother!" she'd exclaimed excitedly, "All the girls from school are going!" She'd launched into an explanation of what was to happen that night. But he'd zoned out, and simply hummed in all the right places before Yuzu's friends called her back to their circle and he'd been left to himself again. Her endless, bright chatter only seemed to emphasize the darkness of the empty house now.

So he lays in his bed, ankles crossed neatly over one another on top of the covers, not even bothering to crawl under the sheets. Sometimes he does that; it reminds him of nights where he was on call all the time, and he'd better be ready because a Hollow could come screaming into town at any minute. He doesn't know why he does it now. Habit, maybe.

His fingers twitch at his sides, and he puts his arms behind his head so he doesn't have to see it. It's an involuntary movement that happens on bad nights; nights when he wants to go out and fight and hold a sword and be strong. It's the reason he twirls a pencil in class now, to take off the edge and cover up the quiver in his hands and muscles.

There's a soft breeze tonight. It makes his curtains tremble in its wake, and draws his attention to the full moon. It's quiet, peaceful and he hates it.

The moon disappears.

Ichigo may not have his powers or his spiritual pressure anymore but he does have his reflexes. He rolls out of bed and lands gracefully on his feet. There's a stranger blocking the moon in front of his window, the curtains billowing behind him. Through the silver light pouring in around the black silhouette Ichigo can make out a hood, but the face remains shrouded by shadows. He is tall, and definitely a he, but Ichigo can sense nothing else. Ichigo slips on the lights, just as the stranger tugs down the hood, and is left staring at himself.

The face seems the same, but the hair is long and black, the eyes are an iridescent amber, and what appears to be the remains of a hollow's mask rests along his jaw bone, cracked and flaking. Ichigo is reminded of the form that he used to destroy Aizen; the Final Getsuga Tenshou. Bitterness creeps up the back of his throat at the reminder, and he fights to push it back down, croaking out a "What do you want?" instead.

The stranger cocks his head, "I should ask you that. But I already know the answer. Don't you?"

"You're me." It's fairly easy to come to that conclusion, even if the thought closes his throat, because if this is him then who is he?

_He_ smiles, as though such thoughts are written across Ichigo's face. But the smile is brittle, bitter, and holds a desperate amount of angst that Ichigo's not sure he wants to address. "From a future that will never be. Yes, I am you, but you will never be me."

"Cryptic bastard."

"As you say," _he_ has the gall to look amused. "I can give you what you want. But we need to hurry, the longer you go without your powers, the less likely I can return them to you."

This has Ichigo's eyes widening, "I can…get my powers back?"

"Yes. It's going to be difficult, and you'll need to leave here. But you'll be back, and you will not have been left behind. I will train you, and you will return with more knowledge and power than the others."

"Of the future?"

The stranger inclines his head in affirmation and holds out a hand. He does not tell Ichigo to pack anything, does not tell him where they will go, only that he can get his powers back if he tags along. It should be a more difficult decision than it is. He will be leaving everyone behind, after all, and this other him is a stranger with dark eyes and even darker secrets. But going is better than staying. This existence is lonely as it is, and he hates it. If it can be made better than Ichigo will do what he must to make it so. If the future him has come to the past with intentions to change it then something will go wrong in the future. Ichigo wants to be ready for that.

He steps up and takes that hand. The decision feels right, because finally he can feel a whisper of something. It feels dark, and feral, and kind of sad—but it feels right and in so many ways it feel like him. This man should not be easy to trust, but Ichigo senses that this is himself, or a version of himself he will never become and if you can't trust yourself, then who can you trust?

The hand closes around his, and they are gone in a blur of black and red without even rustling the curtains. His window remains open with the moon as their only witness as Ichigo is stolen away in the quiet of the night.

There is less fanfare then he expected when they disappear. No one comes to step in, which Ichigo half expects instead they arrive in what seems to be a world of darkness. It feels like a black hole and looks one too. There is no one around; nothing to suggest life. The other him sheds his cloak, revealing a toned body that is wrapped in black. It isn't bandage, or cloth, and it reminds Ichigo of the bone-like-skin of Hollows except black and shaped to the man's muscles like it is his own skin. Ichigo thinks it might be, but he doesn't want to ask. The other him seems to know this. "It is the result of merging with the Hollow, of all my powers coming together. It is the Final Getsuga Tenshou in an eternal form."

"Then you're permanently like this? I thought that that move made us lose our powers?"

Ichigo can feel the other him withdraw, and he only hums a response that isn't a response at all. It is beyond frustrating, and has he always done this to people?

"You will train non-stop. I will push you until you break, you will pick yourself back up and break again. Over and over until your powers come back I will destroy you. There is no return," amber eyes glint despite the lack of light, and distantly Ichigo wonders how they can even see one another without a light source, but then there's a breeze and the him is attacking.

Ichigo throws himself out of the way and lands in the shadows. The ground it soft, and reminds him of cotton and sand as he scrambles to his feet.

"You may call me Hibiki, because I am an echo of what I will never allow you to be."

Ichigo figured that that was better than calling him "other me."

Hibiki shot forward again, and Ichigo attempted to dodge but the man's arm suddenly became enveloped in shadows and the makeshift blade sliced through Ichigo's side.

Blood dripped off Hibiki's arm, "If you do not dodge, I will kill you."

It was too late to regret anything, but still, just what exactly had he signed up for?

* * *

><p>They should have noticed it sooner, that the loss of his powers was affecting him more than anyone actually guessed.<p>

Karin is the first to get home. It's early, very early, in the morning and still dark outside. She's tired, from all the training. Urahara-san says that he wants to strengthen her body before they focus on any of her spiritual powers, but it won't be long yet before she can start learning basics. Like Ichigo had.

As she slips off to her bedroom she casts a glance at her older brother's door. She'll protect him this time, like he's been doing for them all these years. This time around she's going to be the strong one. With her resolve solidified once more she slips off to her bedroom to get a few hours of sleep before she has to get up again for school.

It's not until everyone is gathered around the table for breakfast that anyone thinks something is wrong. Ichigo doesn't really eat with them anymore, but he always give the twins a kiss on the head before he leaves for the day. Today he hasn't even come down the stairs yet.

Yuzu came home just a few hours earlier, claiming that she'd wanted to make breakfast for everyone before they all left for their daily excursions. That included her brother too! She decides she'll be the one to brave her brother's listless, cold stare today so she climbs the stairs to his room as Karin and their father exchange glances.

She knocks on his door, "Ichi-nii breakfast is ready! You should eat with us today," but there is no response. Frowning she opens the door, "I'm coming in!" and it's as if Ichigo was never there at all. The window is open, so the room is cold with last night's chill and the morning dew but the bed is made and there is nothing to suggest that anyone has been living there recently. Ichigo has always been neat and clean, but this goes beyond that. Yuzu finds herself running down the stairs and to her family, tears burning the back of her eyes. Was he taken? Had he left on his own? Surely he would have left a note behind if that was the case! Ichigo would never abandon them!

But Ichigo hadn't been Ichigo lately. Yuzu shakes the thought away and admonishes herself for even thinking such a thing about her protective big brother who has always been there for his little sisters.

"Ichi-nii is gone!"

Isshin nearly gets whiplash for how fast his neck turns, Karin freezes in her seat, a piece of egg halfway to her mouth.

Yuzu plows on, "His window was open, but everything else was untouched. It looks like he was never here at all last night!" She's crying now, and she wants to stop because she needs to be strong. Ichigo isn't here right now and he might need her, wherever he is, so she has to be strong for him. But wiping away her tears is difficult when he's been the one doing that for her for so long.

Karin stand abruptly, the chair falling out from underneath her, and is running out the door before Yuzu can ask where she is going. Isshin has a grim look in his eyes, one that Yuzu doesn't like seeing on their normally irresponsible and childish father. He leaves the table and comes to kneel in front of her, wiping away her tears with his large fingers. "We'll find him, Yuzu, don't worry." He stands again and is heading up to Ichigo's room. Probably to look for clues.

Yuzu sniffs and thinks about how useless she is. For once, she'd like to be able to wipe away her own tears.

Of course Isshin finds nothing. There isn't even a trace of reiatsu, nothing to insinuate the supernatural was involved. But people don't just disappear without a trace, do they? Except they do, and it happens all the time. Sometimes it's easy to forget that in the human world it's not just hollows people have to watch out for. There bad people, bad humans, that can do just as much damage. So Isshin goes to the police and reports that his son is missing. He gives a picture, a description, and goes home because there is nothing left to do.

Karin reports the absence of her brother to Kisuke, and he reports it to Soul Society. They owe Kurosaki a lot, and Shinigami's do not enjoy being in the debt of others. So a team is sent to the human world, to scour it for even a lick of Ichigo.

Rukia comes, so does Renji. So many of his old friends who still consider themselves friends show up. Shinji comes, and some other captains help too, but even with all the power they have they too turn up empty handed. No one can find Ichigo, the boy who turned into a man in a couple of months, gave his everything to the world, and lost the vast power that had made him unique. With his reiatsu like a normal humans', Ichigo is near impossible to find through normal, Shiningami means.

The search crumbles not even 2 months in, and the police tell the family to expect the worst, but hope for the best. Eventually Ichigo's picture falls to the bottom of the stack of missing persons, and the Shinigami must return to Soul Society.

They still send a team to scour the earth every once in a while, but no one believes they will find him.

Yuzu cries for a while, and then she picks herself up off the ground because she can't go on like this. Ichi-nii wouldn't be happy for her crying over him, he would want her to move in. So she does. She think he'd be proud.

She finally wipes away her own tears.

Karin grows stronger. She is given Shinigami powers, transferred by a sword Kisuke created that contains the reiatsu of the strongest of the Shinigami. It is a gift from the Gotei 13. She also thinks it is an unspoken apology for her brother. It will not replace him, but it will be enough to protect what he left behind.

Until it suddenly isn't enough.

Four years after Ichigo's disappearance, four years after Yuzu vows to be strong and Karin wields a Zanpakuto it all goes to hell. She has grown stronger, but Karin is not Ichigo and she has not come nearly far enough. She doesn't evolve in battle like he does, and it costs her.

The Wandenreich invade and crush Seireitei. It isn't even that they invaded, because it turns out they were there all along. Waiting for the chance to leap and pounce on their victim, to strip the Shinigami of rights and power. The Gotei 13 are scattered in a full retreat, and Soul Society is lost in less than a week. It is humiliating and terrifying. The Shinigami flee to the human world, to Karakura. For some reason the Quincy army does not chase them, and the Emperor Yhwach leaves them to lick their wounds in silence. It isn't as if they can do anything, most of the captains have lost their bankai. Everyone is too demoralized to fight.

Karin wishes she was more like Ichigo at times like this. More than anything she wishes he was here, because even as a human he would have been able to pick his comrades up off the ground. They would have rallied around his battle cry without a doubt. Karin can't even bring herself to look at her comrades sometimes.

Everyone is tired.

They live like that for a year. Neither here nor there, powerless like lambs waiting to be slaughtered. It's only a matter of time before the Wandenreich comes to finish what it started.

She think that the time is now. They've all gathered in Urahara Kisuke's underground training room. Kyoraku has his hat tipped down, shrouding his eyes. He's had it hard ever since the Captain-Commander was slain, the start of his own reign as Captain-Commander has been bumpy. But everyone seems to understand, and insubordination has yet to be an issue. Even here in the human world the Shinigami follow their original chain of command.

All this time they'd been planning their return to glory. But their numbers are small, and at best it is a plan that isn't ready to be executed yet. They need a catalyst. Before it would have been Ichigo, now some believe it should be Karin. But she know she doesn't have what is necessary. She lacks whatever it was that Ichigo had.

Urahara thinks she's just too young, and too much has been expected of her. She is cast in her brother's shadow. No one ever mentions a=how she is the same age that Ichigo was when he was an invading force to reckoned with. There is no one to replace that vibrant fire that lit everything it touched on fire.

It is the usual meeting, one that all the captains that are left attend, regardless of the status of their bankai.

Kenpachi slams his fist into the ground, "We've got a plan, we just need to put it into motion! Let's fucking do somethin'!"

Shinji snorts, "Ya say tha' now, but at the moment we ain't got the ability ta even set foot back within Seireitei! It'd be a suicide mission."

"Remaining here will lead to our deaths. The Quincy will come to finish what they started at some point. We have already waited too long," Komamura grunts from his place.

Shinji glowered at the other captain, a scoff and a sharp retort ready to be fired off. The captains are falling apart, Karin thinks. Even her own captain looks ready to join in on the arguing. But Ukitake-taichou somehow restrains himself. He hasn't been well since the day he lost both his bankai and his lieutenant. Rukia hadn't died, but her bankai had frozen her in some effort to preserve both sword and wielder after she'd been grievously injured. They were lucky no one had stolen her bankai.

It isn't even the Captain-Commander that shuts them all up. It's the massive burst of reiatsu that has them audibly clicking their mouths shut. The first thought is that the Wandenreich had come for them, and that will now all die fighting. But then at a second glance the burst of power is so familiar that Karin can almost see the orange hair and slight smirk in front of her. She inhales sharply and is using a shunpo to leave the underground room, to escape to the real world where she knows her brother is waiting. Distantly she notices that the captains and lieutenants are following her.

He's in front of their house, staring up at it as though he's not quite sure he's welcome anymore. He's changed, Karin notices. His hair has grown out and the longest edge reaches to the middle of his back. But that isn't all that shocking, because he's been gone for 5 years now. What shocks her, shocks all of them, is the feel of his powers. There's a distinct hum to him, like his body is practically vibrating because it has too much power to hold in. He turns to her, and they both suck in a gasp because Karin has grown into a woman through battle and experience and Ichigo has grown brighter and more unique than he was before. His once brown eyes glow a bright gold, like his hollow eyes without the black sclera.

Yuzu is actually the first to make a move. She comes dashing out the front door of the house, arms stretched out and tears falling from her eyes. She has remained out of the war, and she still has some of her girlish innocence. Ichigo smiles and hauls her into the air the moment she reaches his arms.

Karin is jealous, and she wants to do that too but she isn't sure if that's too much of a sign of weakness. She wants Ichigo to know that she has grown strong. But then he's putting Yuzu down and opening his arms to her and it's too much for her to try to ignore so she too is throwing herself into her big brother's arms.

"I missed you, I missed you both. I'm sorry I had to go, I'm sorry I left without saying anything," he presses his face into her hair and murmurs to them both.

"You idiot brother, you should've said something. We never stopped looking for you!" Karin sobs into his chest, fists pounding into the hard, muscles planes of his back. He isn't affected in the slightest.

"Son?" Isshin pushes through the small crowd, voice cracking as he watches his daughters greet their long lost brother. Ichigo turns to him and smiles. It's the best thing Isshin has seen in a long time.

They're all gathered around one another now, clinging tight because if they let go they might never have this chance again. But then Ichigo releases them and steps back to survey the Shinigami gathered around them a respectful distance away. His eyes land on Shunsui, as if he knows that the man is now the Commander. "I'm here to help. I know what's happening. I'll explain everything to you, just not right here."

Urahara tips his hat, "Then, let's head back to the shop, yes?"

As they all begin to trudge back to the underground room Ichigo paused and turns around. Kisuke follows his gaze, as do his family, and while Ichigo's eyes seem to be silently communicating with someone there is no one for the others to see. It makes Urahara narrow his eyes because you can never be too cautious now-a-days and while he has no doubt this is Ichigo who knows where the young man has been.

In the end it is only the captain and the family of Ichigo Kurosaki that really need to hear the story. Close friends stick around too; Rukia is missing though, and Ichigo asks her whereabouts though he knows she could be dead.

"She froze herself. It's probably the only thing that kept her alive. We've healed her wounds, but she has yet to come out of this stasis she seems to be in," Byakuya answers him with the same cordial bluntness he has always possessed. Ichigo finds it refreshingly familiar. It's similar to how _he _talks.

It's enough to know that she is alive for now, so Ichigo begins to tell his story that started in that bedroom on that night 5 years ago.

"A man showed up at the window and told me he could get me my Shinigami powers back. He…gave me reason to trust and believe his story, so I went with him. I wasn't really any help to anyone all powerless like that so I had to do something. And I'm glad I did. So he took me to some plane somewhere in between Hueco Mundo and the human world. He didn't give it a name but it was always dark. The whole place was made up entirely of shadows, I'd say." Ichigo looks thoughtful for a moment, as if trying to remember something.

"He trained me for 5 years. Time moved differently there though, faster. So to me it feels like it's been 8 years. I haven't aged that much though, he mentioned something about the new powers messing with me appearance. I've tried cutting my hair, but it just grows back within a couple of days, so it's not really worth it…"

Yuzu laughs with sheer delight and plays with some of the longers strand of his hair, "It's so long I can braid it now!"

Ichigo simply smiles good naturedly.

"Why did you come back now, though? And how did this stranger know we'd be needing you?" Yoruichi points out, index finger tapping on her lips in curiosity.

"I think I should probably let him tell you that part."

Hands immediately move to hilts as a figure steps out of the shadows behind Ichigo. In many ways the two look similar. The stranger had long black hair though, and his eyes glow a darker shade of gold. They can feel nothing from him, and that immediately sets everyone on edge. The alertness the group gives off, as though he is a threat to them, seems to amuse the man even if he does not laugh or smile. At least Ichigo can tell he's amused.

"I am Ichigo from a future that will never come to pass. I took him away in order to get him back his Shinigami powers. You may call me Hibiki."

"How did you return his powers to him?" Urahara isn't the only one curious about that little fact.

"I gave him my own. He simply needed to be strong enough to accept them, otherwise they would have killed him. That is why he was gone so long, why it took so long. In my time, my world, the Wandenreich killed everyone, destroyed everything. By taking Ichigo aside and making him stronger I took a pawn off the playing board. The Emperor used me to bring down the Shinigami the first time. They turned us against one another. But not this time."

"Then do you still have your Shinigami powers…? Why is your appearance so different?" Karin watched as amber eyes turned her way.

"I do not have Shinigami powers. I merged with my hollow, and therefore my sword, and became an eternal Final Getsuga Tenshou," as he spoke the man reached up and stroked along the bone mask the lined his jaw. As his fingers brushed against it parts of it cracked, and some flaked off and turned to dust. Ichigo's jaw visibly clenched at the sight, but he said nothing.

"I was able to give Ichigo what was left of the Shinigami portion of me, all that was left of me."

Kisuke easily put it all together, "You won't be here much longer, will you."

Hibiki shook his head, "Ichigo has all of me now. He has my sword, my reiatsu, a part of my soul. I will return to my own world."

Ichigo shook his head angrily, "As dust! Don't make it sound like you get the easy end of this deal. You have it worse than me! I told you, as soon as this is over I'm going to find some way to return these powers to you! I never wanted yours."

"And as I have told you, Ichigo Kurosaki, we are the person of different circumstance. My powers are your own," He reached out and ruffled Ichigo's orange locks playfully, "you must accept this. Walk into battle with peace of mind. The Wandenreich will wait no longer, if you plan on surviving you must strike first within these next few days. The sooner, the better." The last part was directed at Shunsui.

The Captain-Commander tipped his hat, "I understand. We've been planning for this, but somehow I think we've just been waiting for Ichigo-kun here to come back to us."

Ichigo huffed, "Alright then, let's get to it. Tell me what our plan for a counter attack is."

As the group descended into strategic discussion Hibiki slipped back into the shadows and outside. They'd taken longer to explain everything than he had originally thought, and the moon had already risen.

"It's the same as the night I kidnapped him," Hibiki murmured into the cool, night air; addressed to the moon alone.

"So you did kidnap him?"

Amber eyes slid to the side, watching the blonde curiously, "I did not give him much choice."

Kisuke hummed in agreement, "No, you didn't. Does he know?" The shopkeeper strolled closer, clogs clicking on the ground quite loudly for an ex-captain. He settled himself against one of the pillars on the porch right beside Hibiki.

"No, he believes I will fade away soon. That I will 'die.'"

"I can't believe that boy can't even tell about you," Kisuke sighed, exasperated, "though I'm not sure all of the others can tell either."

"It's because he hopes. Shouldn't you be able to know that better than anyone?" That amber gaze slid back up to the moon. "It's better this way. It will hurt less when I leave."

The two grew quiet. Although they hadn't known one another from this world, they had in another, and the silence that spread between them was companionable.

Like all things good it too was broken.

"'Biki! What're you doing out here? Geta Boushi you better not be bothin' him! Don't encourage his melodramatic angst!" Ichigo's orange head popped out the door, followed by a pink head on top of his. "And Yachiru get off me! I'm not your damn tree to climb on."

The little girl squealed as he made to physically remove her, and Kenpachi could be heard from within, "Oi, Ichigo, come fight me! Show me how much stronger you got!"

Ichigo visibly paled and escaped back inside to find a hiding place, or at least someone to shield him from the monster of a man. He quickly popped his head back outside and shot a narrow eyed glare at Kisuke, making the universal 'I'm watching you' gesture before disappearing again.

Hibiki chuckled and pushed himself off the railing, "I don't regret any of it, Kisuke. I think if anything, I'm happy like this," with his eyes glinting under the moon light he followed Ichigo inside.

Kisuke smiled beneath the shadow of his hat, "Kids these days, how do they grow up so fast?"

"**This is not the end of me**

**This is just the beginning"**

**I Believe **

**Christina Perri**

**P.S. I don't own Bleach**


End file.
